Ryan FK Heise is smiling.
His number one influence: “Sunshine hitting you just when you are about to jump off a bridge.�
Turn the clock back to March 2005 and you’d find the once beleaguered System And Station leader in diving mode, breaking up his beloved band and calling it quits. One year later a ray of light generated by devoted fans along with dedicated new band members spurred Heise into a newfound feeling of optimism which culminates in a new record Here Is Now.
“The album title really comes from the very moment we decided to do another record� Heise enthuses. “We’d been through so much. I really just needed to take a break.� The title track, which closes the disc, says it all. “The lyrics were about redemption and the idea that maybe we were all meant to go through the shit we have to in order to truly know ourselves and to live in the present- which is all we really have anyway.�
Seamlessly melding progressive, pop, punk, and jazz-fusion into a commercially accessible collection, the new and improved System is built to last. “Palmer Cloud (guitarist) and I have been playing together since we were kids, so we read each other pretty well. Palmer wrote a lot of the songs with me on this one, and it’s been tremendously rewarding. Adam Draper, our drummer, has been a friend of ours for four years and we played a lot with his band Forth back in the day. He drives the hell out of the songs which is exactly what they need.�
All that was required to get System completely off the ground was a simple twist of fate, which came in the name of bassist Mark Mattrey, who was found by way of (gasp!) a classified ad. Heise proclaims “we are now officially the luckiest band in the world. After the first song we knew he was the missing piece of the puzzle.�
Though Heise and Cloud had demoed a majority of the songs with all the parts mapped out, veteran producer / engineer Larry Crane (John Mellencamp, The Decembertists, The Walkabouts) was instrumental in capturing System’s sonic rebirth on record, tweaking the songs with delay, effects and employing various tricks to spice up the mix. “If Larry said something was wrong, we knew it was wrong. He trusted me as a songwriter.�
With the album format giving way to the downloaded song, classic rocker Heise nevertheless sees a light at the end of the digital tunnel. “If someone can fully express themselves in exactly three minutes and forty two seconds I don’t think they have a fucking thing to say! It is completely scary, it kills the art and the experience of an album and what the artist is truly trying to express. At the same time, I also believe it will come back around to be hip to be the guy that buys albums…kind of like the resurgence of the ten speed bicycle!�
System And Station will soon be taking Here Is Now on the road. Heise eagerly anticipates bringing the latest version of the band to the public. “Many strange things have happened, but one time we were playing a gig and Palmer had three of four bras thrown at him, but the funny thing was, on that night, there were only like fifteen people in the place!�
Tom Semioli
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http://www.systemandstation.com
System and Station's album Here Is Now is out September 12, 2006 on Latest Flame Records.
Buy Album from CD Universe
